Man's Search For Meaning

In 1942, just months after marrying his wife, Viktor Frankl and his family were sent, first to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, and then to Auschwitz.

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in in the notorious concentration camp.

During his time in the camps, he noticed that those who comforted others and gave away their last piece of bread often survived the longest. He saw that the kind of person a prisoner became depended, not just the influence of the camp, but on an inner decision. Those who let go of their moral and spiritual selves eventually fell victim to the camp’s degrading effects; those who resisted were able to turn their suffering into a kind of inner triumph.

For Frankl, his experience was proof that everything can be taken from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. From this, he came to believe that our deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose.